Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-05-07

tHlnSS lot our diversions. One instance
that came across yesterday was pair of
shoes. They stood on merchants coun
ter, and, taking them up, found that they
were singularly weighted In each toe was
a slip of lead, like those sometimes put on
trotting horses to make them throw out
their feet freely, while on the insdes OF
the ankles were small hunks of leather,
similar to the devices for curing horses
of the habit of interfering" The mer-
chant said: "The girl for whom l made
those shoes to order expects that they
will improve her gait. She has studied
the treatment of horses as to faults of
steps, and her notion is that toe weights
and interferers are what will impart a
freedom and springiness to her walk" OF
course, he lied; but he had contrivcd to
divert me, to show me something that
would be sure to speak of among my
friends, and so his purpose was ac-
complished.
A firm of London tailors for women
has New York establishment. The
evidences are many that they have reck-
oned on taking very profitable advantage
of the Anglomania among our women of
fashion and wealth, for they take especial
pains to announce their employment at
home by aristocrats. A feature of the
establishment is the exhibition of gar
ments on living models-not pretty girls
hired for the service, but genuine English
beauties, imported so freshly that their
London accent is not yet in the slightest
degree impaired. There are fifteen of
them, and all young, with handsome
faces and slender, 1.-THE, shapely figures,
on which the clothes are displayed to the
best possible advantage. They chat
agreeably with the crowd of shoppers,
strike effective attitudes, and walk about
with gait presumably that of the most
approved London bellies.
But there is a still more remarkable de-
vice for catching the fancy of New York
wearers of fashionable garments. In the
center of one room stands hobby horse,
as big as life, covered with real equine
skin and supported in such way on
springs as to rise and fall like a galloper
in motion. The sides of the apartments
are mirrors. This is the department for
riding habits The woman who seeks a
new costume for equestrianism Is asked
to select several models, and these she
may test as to effect by donning them,
taking a seat on the back of the imitation
steed and contemplating herself in the
mirrors while in the saddle In case she
tn hn hnr
herself one of the imported girls CORE
spending most nearly to her size and
shape performs the feat.
Women make laborious matter of
shopping, and an expensive one, too, be-
yond doubt. When the young husband
sees his bride at the breakfast table, be-
fore time enough has elapsed since their
honeymoon to temper his sentiments
with common sense, he regards her white
sacque as a natural attribute to her love-
liness-as something that kind of grew
on her all of itself like the leaf of lily.
Well, it didn't. She toddled around town
the whole afternoon to get the materials.
The cloth is cream-white orient flannel
from Broadway. The principal trimming
is white lace, in frills and jabots, and no
one but herself knows how many stores
she went into before finding a perfect
match over in Sixth avenue. The EN-.
enlistment of long-looped satin ribbon
represents another prolonged tour, end
ng in success down in Fourteenth street.
That is how single breakfast sacque
was gotten together, and it may be dimly
imagined how much greater is the under
taking when it contemplates an elaborate
toilet.
A man is of no account in the shop
ping region, and indeed is seldom seen,
except behind a counter. And if he
ventures into dry goods store, it re-
quires all his nerve to sustain him. Be
sides being "a focus for hundreds of
bright eyes, under which he will grow
TREMENDOUSLY apprehensive that his neck
tie is awry, or his hat indented, or his
face dirty, he finds himself suddenly
thrown among things which, if unmar-
ried, he ought to know nothing about
His hat comes in contact with bustles
hung overhead, he is confronted with
arrays of feminine underwear, plaster
figures wearing corsets meet his abashed
gaze, and hosiery dances like phantom
ballet before his dazed vision.
Odd incidents break the monotony of
shopping. Most demure of shoppers
was the girl whom | saw in one of the
large stores trying on an ulster. Sud
denly an employee snatched the garment
off her should ers and commanded her to
go out. She insisted that she wanted to
buy the cloak, but was rudely expelled
This was because she was taken for an
emissary of rival dealers, and was sup
posed to have come as spy to learn
prices and qualities. They made mis-
take, however, and the consequence is a
suit for damages. A manager of a large
establishment tells me that nearly every
firm in the fancy and dry goods lines
employs a woman to make rounds of the
stores in the guise of an ordinary shop
per in order to collect information. Her
reports serve as a guide for the raising
or the lowering of prices. If she finds
that competitor has marked down lot
of calico, for instance, her employer will
either make still lower reduction OF
meet this particular point of opposition
by throwing some similar line of goods
on his bargain counter The rivalry is
such and the trade so divided that some
times hundreds of dollars will be DELHI
erately sacrificed in day by selling in
certain departments below cost for the
sake of outdoing the merchant on the
next block. There is no longer one es-
adjustment possessing any monopoly of
fashionable patronage. Not even is it
any social misdemeanor for Fifth
avenue woman to buy her finery of
Rroadwov